 | Ellen |  |
To JOHN SWINTON.
My dear Mr. Swinton:
I cannot put my name to “Ellen” unaccompanied by that of the friend from whom I received—while yet his bodily features were unknown to me—a most welcome sympathy and the kindest offices. In dedicating these pages to you I give myself a rare gratification, heightened by the peculiar enjoyment one has in making, with entire propriety, a public avowal of personal feelings.
A small edition of this Poem was published anonymously in 1867. In that were omitted eleven introductory stanzas, which are here restored, and which are needed to give completeness to the design. Nor was the whole divided into parts,—a division that marks the growth and purport of the Poem, and giving it a natural relief, assists the reader. Moreover, that edition was marred by misprints, whereby in several stanzas the meaning was obscured.
1869. | Ellen | |